In Remembrance

The parable is told of a wife (obviously in the 50's or 60's) who was at home washing dishes at the sink in the mid-morning. Her window looked out on the street in front of her house, and she noticed a young man walking up the street toward her house. She was surprised when he came to a stop in front of her house, pulled out a piece of paper, compared it with her address, and walked up her walkway. When he rang the doorbell, she was a little concerned. "Yes?" "Mrs. Smith, I came here to give you this." And he handed her a crisp $100 bill and walked away. Well, she was dumbfounded. What was this? Why was this? Who was this? What else would follow? Because you don't get something for nothing, right? The next day she was at the same sink at the same time and saw the same man walking up the street. "Here it comes," she thought. "Here's the other shoe." Sure enough, he walked up her walkway, rang the doorbell, and, when she answered it ... gave her another $100 bill and walked away. Not what she was expecting. She was, again, amazed, excited, awed, wondrous. The routine kept up for a week. After the second week, she was standing at the door waiting for him to walk up. At the beginning of the 5th week, she was waiting again, but he just walked by. He stopped at the neighbor's house, walked up to her door, and handed her $100. "Hey!" she shouted as he walked back by her house. "Where's my hundred dollars?!"

That's us, alright. When we first encounter God's amazing grace, we are stunned. We rejoice. We are delighted and grateful. We are in awe (where "awe" includes both "wonder" and "dread"). After a while, of course, we begin to take it for granted, like the sunrise. It's there every day. Why wouldn't we? And then, we demand it. We don't merely expect it; we're upset when it doesn't go our way. "Hey!" we metaphorically complain to God, "Where's my grace?!"

At the Lord's Supper we are called upon to "do this in remembrance of Me" (Luke 22:19; 1 Cor 11:24-25). Remembrance of what? We're called to do this often to remember His body broken for us and His blood spilled for us. Think about that. God planned before time (Titus 1:1-2) to send His Son to become flesh, live a sinless life, and die a horrible death ... for us. Remember that. Jesus voluntarily went to the cross, took our sin on Himself, and gave us His righteousness. Remember that. They did that not for wayward children, but for hostile enemies (Rom 5:10). Remember that. And when you recall all that, see if you haven't sunk to the place of taking for granted -- or even demanding -- God's grace. You can tell if you rmember all that and are bored.